[Signed] Khodalaev, G. [Khodzalaty Gersan]. God's "Messenger" (Xuycauÿ "Minaévar" / "Poslanets" Boga). A prose tale (uatsau). 1969. In Ossetian (Iron dialect).

Хъодалаты Герсан. Хуыцауы „Минæвар" : уацау.
Цхинвал : Рауагъдад „Ирыстон", 1969. 
***
Кодалаев, Герсан Зурабович. «Посланец» Бога : повесть на осетинском языке / ред. А. С. Пухаев ; худож. Г. З. Кодалаев ; худред. А. Д. Ванеев ; техред. Ш. Г. Елбакиев ; корр. А. И. Техов. 
Цхинвали : Ирыстон, 1969. 
[88] с. ; 17 см. — 1000 экз. 
***
Khodalaev, Gersan Zurabovich [in Iron Ossetian: Khodzalaty Gersan]. Xuycauÿ "Minaévar" [God's "Messenger"] : uatsau (prose tale) / parallel Russian title in colophon: "Poslanets" Boga; parallel Georgian title: Lmertis "Gharmomagdeneli."
Tskhinval : Iryston Publishing House, 1969. [88] pp. ; 17 cm.
Paper wrappers. Print run of 1,000 copies.
Signed by the author on the front free endpaper.
Condition good: wrappers heavily age-toned and browned; small stain at lower right corner of front wrapper; text block uniformly toned; pages complete and legible.

Gersan Zurabovich Khodalaev (Хъодалаты Герсан, 1938-2022) was one of the leading figures of South Ossetian literature and culture of the later twentieth century: poet, publicist, translator, laureate of the State Prize named after Kosta Khetagurov - the highest literary honor in Ossetian culture, named after the nineteenth-century founder of Ossetian literary tradition - laureate of the "Apple of Narts" prize, and long-serving chief editor of "Fidwag" (Фидиуаг), the only Ossetian-language literary journal in South Ossetia. Born in the Leningori district of South Ossetia, his first collection of poetry ("The Traveler") appeared in 1964; the present work, written in 1963 and published in 1969, is a rare example of his prose: a уацау (uatsau), a traditional form of Ossetian narrative drawing on both the ancient oral storytelling tradition and modern literary conventions. Published by the Iryston (Ирыстон = "Ossetia") publishing house, established in Tskhinval in 1967 as the primary vehicle for South Ossetian literary publication, the book appeared within the characteristic trilingual context of the South Ossetian Autonomous Oblast of the Georgian SSR: the colophon provides parallel titles in Russian ("Посланец Бога") and Georgian (ლმეირთის „ღარმომადგენელი"). With a print run of only 1,000 copies aimed at local Ossetian readers and regional libraries, and no international distribution, Tskhinval publications of this period are extraordinarily rare outside the Caucasus; the subsequent armed conflicts of 1991-1992 and the 2008 Russo-Georgian War have further disrupted the survival and dispersal of South Ossetian cultural materials.